• ONLINE SPIN
    What Is The Value Of World Cup Sponsor Recognition Research?
    I am writing to you this week from the U.K. where, as those who have followed the goings-ons of the World Cup will understand, all the national team merchandise is on sale at half price. Get yer Rooney gear cheap! Anyway, in this third World Cup post I wanted to look at World Cup sponsor recognition research. After 10 years at Coca-Cola and over 3 years at Anheuser Busch-InBev, I know what it's like to be an official sponsor. I have negotiated directly with FIFA and so am somewhat familiar with the ins and outs. And here is what baffles …
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Social Nets Blatantly Stoking The Fires Of Insecurity
    This week, an all-too-close-to-the-bone video from Higton Brothers is making the rounds on my Newsfeed, ironically using Facebook to spread the message that Facebook isn't all it's cracked up to be. In it, the protagonist's life spirals completely out of control while his social media posts depict only awesomeness. It's certainly not news that sites like Facebook make us feel bad about ourselves. From the BBC to Time magazine, from commentary to rigorous research, we've been hearing users complain about social media-provoked low self esteem for some time.Read these studies and editorials, and you'll learn about things like the availability …
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Advertising Is A Story -- But A Story That Needs To Sell A Product
    We have a sign on the wall of our office in L.A. that reads: "Creative without strategy is called art. Creative with strategy is called advertising." It's a quotation from ad industry thinker Jef I. Richards, and while a lot of maxims about advertising are basically meaningless slogans, I think this one is really important for all of us in the business to know and understand.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Office Politics: Your Co-Workers Are Not Evil
    Your co-workers are not evil. I know this sounds like a strange statement to make, but think about how you sometimes react to your co-workers when they do something that gets on your nerves. Think about the ways you respond when someone gets involved in office politics and does something that creates an inconvenience for you. The typical first reaction is based on ego and emotion, which rarely lead to a positive interaction.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Why Is Shopper Marketing The Red-Headed Stepchild?
    Last week I attended a fantastic event in Chicago called "The League of Leaders," an initiative run by the Path to Purchase Institute. Heard of them? Of course you haven't. That's because the subject matter focused on shopper marketing, the red-headed stepchild of the marketing ecosystem.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    World Cup Fever: How Advertisers Beat Sports Fans Into Submission -- Or Unconsciousness
    Week two of the global FIFA World Cup party. So far the event is delivering great entertainment, except when you are Brazil.And as I explained last week, I am not loving the way marketers in the USA are treating us. I think most FIFA World Cup marketing has been designed by dumb and dumber, under the assumption that we are dumb and dumber, too (see what I did there?). We're not. We are 21st century consumers. We trust friends, peer reviews, even online strangers more than advertisers. We are connected and fact-checking digital mobile creatures. Multiscreen rules! You would think …
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Peter Thiel And The Alternative Career Path
    "The most important thing I can teach my kids," said my friend Frank, leaning forward intently, "is to be masters of their own destinies." Being master of your own destiny, apparently, is the new black, with early adopters like Peter Thiel setting the tone. The Thiel Fellowship, created in 2010, gives 20 people under 20 $100,000 to drop out of college and work on their startups full-time.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Balancing 1-To-1 Marketing Vs. 'Being Creepy'
    Data-driven marketing is a hot topic, but how data-driven should you become? How granular is granular enough when it comes to targeting? While in years past, marketers dreamed of one-to-one targeted marketing, some one-to-one marketing is still considered "creepy" by customers and is prohibitively expensive in many cases.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    A No-Bollocks Approach To Facebook Marketing
    In a recent article, Newcastle Brown Ale brand director Quinn Kilbury revealed " the Secrets of Facebook Advertising." Cheers, Mr. Kilbury, for first and foremost having created a stellar creative campaign. It's through work like this that you and Facebook's Chief Creative Officer Mark D'Arcy continue to prove social media can, and should, brew award-worthy ad campaigns. But also, a toast to you for finally telling it like it is. Rather than pausing to lament the reported loss of organic reach, you're running with the new world of marketing on Facebook -- and coming out ahead of the game for …
  • ONLINE SPIN
    World Cup Sponsorship: Priceless?
    I don't have much time, because the World Cup is on and my home country, The Netherlands, has gotten off to a pretty amazing start. But I also follow England, Belgium, Team USA, Brazil, Japan and Germany. OK, I will admit I watch the whole thing beginning to end. This year, though, most (U.S.) marketers are failing, with mostly very lame, predictable soccer advertising that is incredibly non-distinctive and same-old, same-old.
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